In Yonkers, Garbage Isn’t Going Anywhere

When the city of Yonkers reduced the frequency of garbage pickup this week, the cost-cutting move unfortunately coincided with record-breaking high temperatures. Making matters worse for residents, in many parts of the city the promised garbage pickup never happened, leaving piles of trash rotting on neighborhood streets and stewing resentment among residents.

“The switch to one day a week garbage pick-up is not going smoothly,” said Yonkers Councilman John Murtagh on Thursday. He said his office has received numerous complaints. “I’m sitting on my front porch looking at four trash bags that I put out at midnight last night [Wednesday] and they’re still here.”

David Simpson, a spokesperson for Yonkers Mayor Philip A. Amicone, said several factors contributed to the trash not being picked up on time: Workers called in sick–48 on Thursday alone–new routes were implemented and the July Fourth holiday added to the confusion. Simpson also said the city took disciplinary action against workers who intentionally failed to pick up trash, protesting job cuts.

Simpson said the trash will be picked up and back on schedule next week.

Until then, however, residents must withstand mountains of Hefty bags and increasingly aggressive odors.

“In this kind of heat, to pass up a neighborhood is unconscionable,” said Barbara Howard, who lives in Northeast Yonkers. “It’s putting everybody at an unnecessary health risk to prove some type of point.”

Wilda Mejias who has been a homeowner in Southwest Yonkers for 25 years said, “It’s terrible. South of Yonkers is so densely populated, the accumulation of waste from one week to the next, especially in the summer, is a health hazard.”

The point of the skipped pickup, Murtagh said, is obvious. “Unions are trying to embarrass City Hall and upset people to get the city council to cave in and raise property taxes,” he said. “These service reductions would be completely unnecessary if our unions were willing to make reasonable concessions to get through our budget crises.”

The average residential tax bill is $4,853. Simpson said the mayor has proposed a 4% increase on property tax. He also said the city doesn’t have a lot of options without concessions from unions.

“We’re in a very serious budget crisis,” Simpson said. “It’s not that we wanted to go from two day a week pick-up to one, but we’ve run out of cash.”

Mejias, who plans to send a letter to the City Council and mayor, said “different people will resort to different tactics and strategies but it’s a shame that it’s on the backs of everyday people in the community.”

Ashley Perez, 15, who lives in Yonkers and works on the trash campaign for Groundwork Hudson Valley, an environmental justice nonprofit, says the reduction in trash pick-up will compound the garbage issue the city already faces.

“It’ll stink even more,” Perez said. “I notice it when I’m outside in front of my building, it smells like hot trash.”

But there could be an upside. “Maybe people will be more conscious about wasting everything,” she said.